Politically Speaking: Rep. Windham On Trying To Make His Mark As A Freshman In The Missouri House

State Rep. Kevin Windham is the latest guest on the Politically Speaking podcast, where the Hillsdale Democrat talked about his first few months as a member of the Missouri House.

Windham represents the 85th District, which takes in roughly 20 municipalities in central and north St. Louis County. When he won his seat in 2018 at age 25, he became the youngest African-American man ever to get elected to the General Assembly’s lower chamber.

Windham is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. After college, he worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

During the 2018 election, Windham beat three other candidates in the Democratic primary — which is tantamount to election in a district that leans heavily toward that party. He serves on committees dealing with transportation, local government and elections and elected officials.

So far this session, Windham has sponsored legislation making some changes to the A+ program — which provides state scholarship money to college students. It would require money from that program to be applied before any other funding source goes toward paying for a college or a university.

He is optimistic that some Republican lawmakers would be amenable to Franks’ bill, especially since both House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, and Gov. Mike Parson have talked about overhauling Missouri’s criminal justice system.

Windham voted against state Rep. Nick Schroer’s bill that would substantially restrict abortion throughout the state. Among other things, the O’Fallon Republican’s legislation would ban abortion if a doctor can detect a heartbeat or brain activity after around eight weeks of a pregnancy.

He’s not a fan of a Better Together’s plan to merge St. Louis and St. Louis County. Some detractors believe it will make it harder for African-Americans to win regionwide offices since the combined population of the city and county will be majority white.

State Rep. Nick Schroer joins Politically Speaking for the second time to talk about the Missouri House’s passage of an expansive abortion-restriction bill.

Members of the House easily approved the St. Charles County Republican’s legislation this week, which now heads to the Senate. It’s expected to face a Democratic filibuster once it hits the floor of the General Assembly’s upper chamber.

Missouri Republicans used their annual Lincoln Days celebration to bask in their statewide dominance: gearing up for an election cycle where the party is playing defense, as opposed to trying to knock off Democratic incumbents.

Republicans hold all but one statewide office and commanding majorities in the Missouri General Assembly. But some attendees noted that nearly absolute power over statewide government means absolute blame if Republicans fail to deliver.